Texas brothers plead guilty in $8M crypto kidnapping

Federal prosecutors in Minnesota and the U.S. Department of Justice announced on June 18, 2026, that Isiah Angelo Garcia, 25, and Raymond Christian Garcia, 24, of Waller, Texas, pleaded guilty to one count of Interference with Commerce by Robbery in connection with a Sept. 19, 2025, home invasion in Grant, Minnesota. U.S. District Judge Ann D. Montgomery accepted the pleas; sentencing dates have not been set.

According to court records, the brothers traveled from Texas to Minnesota and held a family at gunpoint for more than eight hours. Prosecutors say the victims were bound with zip ties and forced to surrender access to cryptocurrency accounts. Investigators allege Isiah Garcia escorted one victim to the family’s cabin in northern Minnesota, where the victim was compelled to retrieve additional storage devices and transfer funds.

The Department of Justice wrote in court filings: “During the offense, the defendants demanded access to the victim’s cryptocurrency accounts, zip-tied Victim 1 and his family, and held the family at gunpoint for over 8 hours.” The victim’s son called 911 while the suspects were still at the property; the defendants fled before law enforcement arrived.

Items left at the scene helped investigators identify the suspects and locate them near Houston, Texas. Both brothers acknowledged in their pleas that they used firearms to threaten the victims and to facilitate the robbery. Court documents state the defendants forced transfers totaling more than $8 million in cryptocurrency.

Restitution agreements require the defendants to pay more than $8 million to the victims. Under the federal robbery count to which they pleaded guilty, each faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The case was handled by federal prosecutors in Minnesota, and further sentencing and restitution terms will be determined in federal court.